We have tons of old home videos on Hi8 cassette and more recent digital on Hi8mmm going back 15 years and would like to put them on DVD. Our old Sony camcorder can cope with analogue and digital and we also have a DVD recorder/player that - in theory- can do this, but the manual makes my head hurt. ;-)

There are also shops that will do this for us, but we're talking about over 30 cassettes so would get expensive. But what I'd like to know is if there's anything they would do that I can't. Do they improve the image in any way?

Would it be worth doing this on a PC instead? Apart from menus and special effects, are there any advantages? If so, any recommendations for a good user friendly program? I'm not interested in editing. I just want to put everything on DVD.

Thanks,

Steve

The easiest way is to borrow or buy a DV camera that has an analogue to digital pass through, and a USB2 output (or Firewire if you have an older Mac). Then connect to your computer and use whatever DVD burning software you like (e.g. Roxio).

You will have quite a lot of reading up and experimentation to do before you get it right.

You CAN use your stand-alone DVD recorder, but then you have to solve the technical problem of converting the Hi8 output into a suitable input for the recorder, which usually means buying an expensive special purpose box of electonics to sit in-between the devices.

You may find it cheaper to use a company that specializes in this. Some are expensive ... at 20 pounds or more per tape, but I have seen the service advertised for as little as 7 pounds per tape, and if you add up the cost of software, cables, and your time and frustration that might turn out to be very good value - even at 200 pounds or thereabouts for 30 tapes.

Tom,

I should have explained that although our first camcorder was a Hitachi that recorded analogue onto Hi8mm, our later camera was a Sony that I chose because it both recorded digital onto Hi8 AND recognised analogue Hi8.

So the output is always digital.

I don't have a decent video program. I guess what I was concerned about was if I should use the camera-DVD recorder link or a specific program designed to enhance the video.

My aim is to conserve the videos since I heard that the longevity of these Hi8 cassettes is questionable.

Steve

PS Having seen the size of the new camcorders, I'd be embarrassed to use ours! Amazing how technology changes so quickly.

Smaller, cheaper and smarter.

What a shame they can't apply it to our politicians!

In theory there is nothing the Pros can do that you can't, and for a simple transfer you should do just as good a job, though they will find it much easier than you will.

If the tapes/cassettes are damaged, or the videos are poor then a good professional studio has both the expertise and the expensive software and hardware to do things that would be prohibitively expensive (in both time and money) for you.

As for using computer ... there is a lot of sophisticated software available to improve video quality - it isn't just special effects and editing. The main types of improvement are by removing noise and fixing brightness levels and colour balance, but you don't need those unless you are unhappy with the quality of your old recordings.

THere is alos software to increase the apparent resolution of the images by interpolating extra pixels. This can give a smoother looking image - but of course it can't put any more real information in the end product than was in the original.